Leveling the floor with plywood yourself

One of the most important stages of construction work is preparation. In the case of installation of flooring, we are talking about the fact that the floor surface should be as flat as possible. If the floor will have height differences, this will cause the floor to deform and squeak. In the end, this will lead to a violation of the integrity of the coating, which will affect the overall life.

Note! There are several ways to level the surface. Some are less time consuming, some are more, but one of the most universal is leveling the floor with plywood.

In this article we will explain how to level the wooden floor with plywood with your own hands, and also offer to view the video instructions.

Work Methods

Before you begin the description of the process, it is worth a few words to say that there are several options for carrying out this type of work, and they are to some extent different from each other. In principle, we can distinguish:

• simple floor leveling with plywood.
• installation of veneer floor on logs.

The first method is simpler, but can only be used with minor unevenness of the floor, constituting no more than 5 mm per m ?. With more significant differences, it is necessary to mount a wooden sheathing or logs.

Depending on the method, the process of leveling the floor will be slightly different, and therefore it is worth considering each of them separately.

Simple alignment

As mentioned above, if the difference in surface heights is small, then you can simply lay plywood on the floor. Separate plywood panels are laid on the floor and fixed. It is worth noting here that this process may differ slightly depending on the base.

1. If the wooden floor is leveled, then the sheets of plywood are simply screwed to the base with screws on the wood. The distance between them should be equal and be approximately 5–7 cm. It should also be noted that a distance of 2–3 mm should be maintained between the individual sheets of plywood. This is necessary because plywood, being a product of wood, has the property to change its size and shape under the influence of changes in humidity.
2. When plywood is being laid on a concrete floor, it is worth considering that it is able to accumulate and retain moisture, so before laying it is necessary to dry the base as much as possible. Its readiness can be determined if polyethylene is placed on the concrete by pressing it around the perimeter. If after a few days no condensate droplets have formed on its inner surface, then the base is ready. It is necessary to fix the sheets of plywood to the concrete base with dowels, also strictly maintaining the distance between them. Among other things, it is worth considering that in order to level the floor in this way you need to use sufficiently thick plywood, at least 18–20 mm.

I have sex

When the differences in the heights of the base are more than 5 mm, alignment with the help of simple plywood installation cannot be achieved, therefore, the installation of wooden lags is indispensable. It is worth noting that you can mount the floor on the lags of plywood yourself.

For the manufacture of logs, you can use a wooden beam section of 40? 100 mm. Fix logs to the concrete floor can be either using anchor bolts or dowels. The installation process can be divided into several stages.

• First you need to prepare a certain amount of wooden bases for lags. In principle, you can use trim the same timber.
• A marking is applied on the concrete base on which the bars will be laid. You can mark the floor with a jib cord. The distance between adjacent lines, and later lags, should be approximately 40 cm.
• The marking lines need at a distance of about half a meter from each other to fix the wooden base under the logs. Attach them with anchors.
• When the bases are installed, the logs are laid on them and the screws are screwed on the wood. Lagging in the same plane should be constantly monitored using the building level. When installing the lag, you need to consider that they should not be installed close to the walls, but withstand a distance of a couple of centimeters.
• After installing the lag in the space between them you need to place the insulated material. Mineral wool is excellent for these purposes, but expanded clay can also be used. This will not only ensure additional thermal insulation, but also reduce the overall sound permeability of the floor.
• Then you can start laying sheets of plywood. It should be ensured that there is a 2–3 mm distance between the sheets, while the distance between the sheets and the walls should be between 1.5 and 2 cm. Screw the plywood to the lags with screws on the wood. The distance between the screws should be maintained equal to 5-7 cm.

General installation rules

If, if necessary, to level the floor, the choice fell on completing the task by laying plywood, then you should know a number of general rules for carrying out these works:

• Plywood, like any other material based on wood, is very sensitive to changes in humidity, to the extent that it can change its size and shape. Therefore, before proceeding to the laying of sheets, they must be well dried.
• Since plywood is used in this case for leveling the surface, and not as a finishing floor covering, there is no point in buying a very high-quality material. Plywood of 4 categories will be quite enough. Such plywood has a relatively low price, but at the same time quite strong.
• To simplify the process of laying sheets of plywood can be cut into smaller ones. The most convenient in circulation will be square plates of size 75? 75 cm.
• Depending on the size of the room, the optimal dimensions of the cross-section of the bars will vary if the laying of the wooden floor on the logs is used. To simplify the calculations, you can use the table. 
  

• If plywood is being laid directly on the base, then sufficiently thick plywood should be used, with a thickness of 17 mm or more. Such material will cope with all the loads exerted on the surface.
• If you install the plywood floor on the logs in the corridor, the laying of the bars should occur across the room.
• For fastening wooden elements of construction to the concrete base, anchor bolts or dowels should be used.
• When leveling the floor with plywood, especially if there is an installation lag, the overall level of the floor surface increases to some extent. And if you consider that a topcoat will be laid over the plywood, the increase can be quite noticeable. This will be especially significant if the room has not very high ceilings.

Summing up the above, it is worth adding that plywood is an affordable, easy to handle and install material that has good strength and durability, which adds to the arguments in favor of its use in leveling the floor.

Video

Video on how to level the floor with plywood lags:

This video describes the alignment of curved floors with plywood: